The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The tension that many Americans with hyphenated identities feel is shown in Jhumpa Lahriri’s The Namesake. The story follows the oldest son of a Bengali-American family. Due to a mix up with his names, the son, Gogol, is given a pet name as his legal name. He despises this name because it’s different from both his American friends and Bengali family. When he turns 18, he changes his name to Nikhil, a name his parents had given him when he was in kindergarten but he rejected. However, he is unable to put the name Gogol behind him and the name Gogol continues to follow him, causing him stress and resentment until the end of the book when he accepts himself and both of his names. The more that Gogol accepts his names, the more he fully comes of age. Although it may seem that when Gogol changes his name to Nikhil he is shedding the burdens of childhood and becoming his true self, he is really just rejecting an essential part of himself. He rejects lots of suppo...